1.1 The text refers to itself as a verbal entity (with implied or explicit boundaries).

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1.1 The text refers to itself as a verbal entity (with implied or explicit boundaries).

1.1.1 The text refers to itself using a genre term, speech act term, verb or other term implying verbal constitution: 3Bar refers to itself as "narrative" (diegesis) (1:1), and "revelation" (apokalupsis) - both terms occurring in frame positions. Neither carries any strong sense of literary form or boundedness.

1.1.2 The text speaks of itself as dealing with an overall theme (subject matter) or purpose, or as consisting of coordinated parts making a whole: 3Bar 1:1, "ineffable things"; 1:6, "mysteries"; 1:8, "mysteries of God"; 2:6, "greater mysteries".

1.1.4 The text introduces the governing voice, thereby indirectly marking its own boundedness: An anonymous framing voice introduces Baruch as the majority speaker of the text. This framing voice does little, other than locate the speaker in space ("beside the river Gel", 1:2) and time ("when Abimelech was preserved by the hand of God at Agrippa's farm/estate", 1:2). Its identification of the speaker as Baruch does not add any information, since Baruch frequently identifies himself in the first person in his discourse. The one exception is the third person introduction at 4:7, "Baruch said", not "I, Baruch, said", but this is probably simply a copyist's error. [CHECK GREEK]. It is unclear whether or not the framing voice speaks the concluding sentence, "And do you, brothers, who have been granted such a revelation, ascribe glory to God also yourselves, so that he too may glorify us [CHECK READING] now and always, even to all eternity. Amen". Or whether Baruch is still speaking. See 2.1 and 2.2.1.

1.1.5 Important text witnesses attest to a heading which is not integrated with the body of the text or with any introductory frame, implying one or more of the kinds of information under 1.1.1–4: The Prologue to 3Bar (Gk) could be taken as two extended titles, standing outside the work, but the information they give is unusually full for a title, and, at least the second, can be seen as providing a narrative setting for the first person discourse that follows. Slav is slightly different, but still provides a setting: "Apocalypse of Baruch when the angel Phanuel was sent to him on the holy mountain Zion, beside the river, when he cried over the captivity of Jerusalem." Do the mss have an additional short title?

1.2 The text presents its internal sequence of sentences (or larger parts) as mirroring the objective relationships of components in the projected world (an objective order), or projects its subject matter as self-limiting (5.3.). See further under 4, 5.2–5 or 6: Much of 3Bar presents in sequence descriptions of the contents of five heavens. See further 9.6.3.

1.4 The text signals its parts or boundaries only by implicit contrast or by some other implicit signal (1.1./2 do not apply): NB: In the current entry, this category is used in addition to 1.1 categories:

1.4.1 A contrasting theme appears at the beginning or at what turns out to be a boundary/end point in the text: The text marks its ending strongly: the door shuts, the actors withdraw, Baruch is restored to where he was at the beginning, he comes to himself and praises God, and he or the framing voice calls on the readers, addressed as "brothers", to glorify God (17:1-4). See further 1.7 and 4.1.3.

1.4.2 A sentence/small unit with a contrasting form from those used in the co-text appears at the beginning or at what turns out to be a boundary/end point in the text: The third person anonymous text of the prologue (1:1-3) contrasts with the first person narration of the bulk of the text that follows. This third person voice seems to return in the concluding exhortation (17:4), so we have a large first person discourse framed by a third person setting.

1.6 The approximate word count or other indication of comparative size is: c. 3400 words, according to the Online Criticial Pseudepigrapha electronic version of the Picard edition (pasted into a word document), http://ocp.tyndale.ca/3-greek-apocalypse-of-baruch (accessed 24 April 2012).

1.7 The text’s Inventory profile should be seen in the light of the following further information on completeness, thematic progression, aesthetic effects, etc.: There are long-standing scholarly doubts about the integrity and completeness of 3Bar. (1) The text describes five heavens and then closes. This is unusual. Only one, two, three, or seven-heaven cosmologies are attested elsewhere, and once the description has gone beyond three, the reader expects it to go all the way up to seven. This expectation is not acknowledged or managed. Though access to the fifth heaven, to which Michael alone has the key (11:2), is denied to Baruch, there is no suggestion that it is not the uppermost heaven. Indeed, it is implicitly called "the kingdom of God" at 11:2, which might suggest that it is the heaven in which God dwells. (2) At various points the angel exhorts Baruch, "But wait and you will see the glory of God" (6:12; 7:2; 11:2; 16:4). This might be read as a promise of a climactic beatific vision of God seated on his throne (which is how the words might be understood in some contexts) - a promise never fulfilled in the extant texts, but on closer reading the phrase seems simply to highlight what happens next in the narrative as wonderful, and as a manifestation of God's glory. (3) There are clear Christian elements in what appears to be otherwise a Jewish text: note particularly the reference to "Jesus Christ Emmanuel" at 4:15; see also 13:4 and 16:4. The Christian elements are not numerous, and they are much more evident in Greek than in Slav, though not entirely absent from the latter. (4) The substantial textual differences between the Greek and Slav recensions could be taken as grounds for questioning the integrity of the text, questioning which might be reinforced on internal grounds, e.g., by the puzzling similarity between the contents of the first two heavens: the first contains those who built the tower (2:7), and the second those who planned to build the tower. The fine distinction here is not thematized. Despite questions about the integrity and coherence of 3Bar, it opens clearly and closes strongly. See further 1.4.1 and 4.1.3. Overall, the text could be described as a hybrid of 4.1 and 5.1. Text-linguistically 4.1 has to be given priority, but the narrative is basically a way of structuring a thematic discourse (5.1). In short, 3Bar could be described as a 5.1 text masquerading as a 4.1.

2.1 The information conveyed in the text defines the perspective of the governing voice in the following way: NB: "governing voice" is here taken as Baruch's voice, on the grounds that he speaks the vast bulk of the text, and the framing voice, which introduces him contributes little.

2.1.1 [The text does not thematize how the governing voice comes to know the text’s contents (or its right to command obedience from the addressee), but suggests that its knowledge (or authority) is unlimited: The framing voice of 3Bar (see 2.1) does not explain how it is able to report what Baruch says. The obvious readerly inference is that the framer received a text of Baruch's revelation to which he added a prologue and (possibly) a coda (1:4).]

2.1.3 Knowledge or authority of the text is presented as exceeding what the persona projected by the governing voice would ordinarily be able to achieve (e.g., supernatural or non-human mediators and informants): 3Bar constantly presents Baruch's knowledge of the contents of the heavens as revelation mediated by an angelus interpres, Phanuel.

2.1.5 The information in the text is characterized as secret or as (made) known exclusively to the persona projected by the governing voice: 3Bar on several occasions describes its information as "mysteries" (1:4 [Slav]; 1:6,8; 2:6; 5:3 [Slav]; 17:1 [Slav]) attainable only by special revelation.

2.1.9 [An anonymous voice repeatedly reports the direct speech of a character whose speeches account for the bulk of the text (but not continuously): The anonymous framing voice does not continue to name Baruch as the speaker after the initial introduction (except possibly at 4:7). Such repetition is rendered redundant by the fact that Baruch constantly identifies himself as the speaker ("I, Baruch").]

2.2 A first-person voice imposes its perspective on all (or almost all) knowledge or norms conveyed in the text.

2.2.1 The first-person governing voice is identified by an anonymous voice through a proper name or unique description. Points 2.2.1.1–3 are devoted to the anonymous voice; all other points presuppose the knowledge horizon of the first-person voice, unless otherwise indicated: The speaker of the bulk of the text is named by the anonymous framing voice as "Baruch".

2.2.1.2 The text is introduced as the first-person voice’s extended direct speech, having taken place on a unique narrative occasion: 3Bar Prol. 1-3 locates the revelation to Baruch both as to time and place. It happened when he was "beside the river Gel", sitting "at the beautiful gates, where the Holy of Holies lay". The "Gel" is possibly a corruption of "Kedron" (so M.R. James). The "beautiful gates" could be identified with the temple gate on the east side of the Temple (is there an allusion to the Gate Beautiful in Acts?), which is designated here, by synecdoche, as the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies, in the strict sense of the term, lay some distance to the west. This would locate the revelation, then, fairly precisely on the western slope of Nahal Kidron, close to the eastern gate of the Temple. The time is somewhat vaguely identified as when Abimelech was at Agrippa's estate/farm. Baruch himself in 1:1 designates the time of the revelation as being just after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem. All this locates fairly precisely the revelation in time and space. It is not difficult for the reader to assume that the account of the revelation was composed shortly after. See further 7.2.2.1 below.

2.2.1.3 The introduction of the first-person governing voice of the text has the following characteristics (also applies to self-identification 2.2.2):

2.2.1.3.1 It contextualizes the person, or the person together with a unique occasion of speaking: See 2.2.1.2.

2.2.1.3.2 It consists of minimal or merely formal information (e.g. name and genre/generic contents): The name Baruch in 3Bar is used without epithetic or other description.

2.2.1.3.3 It is found at the beginning of the text only: This applies to the frame, but from the point of view of the body of the text (the 1st person discourse) references to Baruch's authorship abound.

2.2.2 The first person voice identifies itself by name or uniquely identifying expression (once or repeatedly): Baruch speaks of himself repeatedly in the first person ("I, Baruch").

2.2.4 The number and gender of the first-person governing voice are as follows:

2.2.4.1 The first person singular is used.

2.2.4.2 The first person plural is used: Note "us" at 3Bar 17:4, but it is unclear whether this is said by Baruch or the framing voice - probably the latter. At 1:2 Baruch uses the 1st person plural to identify himself with the people of Israel, not with the readers.

2.2.4.4 The first person forms are marked for gender: Male, but how? Baruch is a male name, but are any of the verbal or adjectival forms grammatically masculine in gender?

2.4 The governing voice defines a horizon of knowledge as shared with the projected addressee by taking for granted the following linguistic usages or references (in selection):

2.4.3 The text as a whole routinely employs the following language(s), knowledge of which is taken for granted: It is widely assumed in the scholarly literature that Greek is the original language of the text. The occasional Semitisms can be explained as Septuagintal style. The Slav versions were translated from a Greek original (not identical to the current Greek), as was the lost Latin version. The text appears to have been heavily reworked in its Slav translations.

2.4.4 Special linguistic usages occur pervasively or prominently:

2.4.4.1 Technical expressions for a particular subject matter: 3Bar 1:2 assumes the reader will know that "the vineyard" is not a literal vineyard, but a metaphor for Israel. Also takes for granted that the reader will understand the expressions, "Day of Judgement" (1:7); Hades (4:3,6; 5:3); the protoplast Adam and Eve (4:8 Slav); the first-formed (4:9); the devil (4:8); Paradise (4:10,15); the giants (4:10); the ark (4:11).

2.4.4.4 Biblicizing language, such that the text may be assumed to project itself as having a link to texts today known as biblical (see 7.1.4.1): See 2.4.3 and 7.1.5.3.1.

2.6 The text presents itself as speaking to certain persons, groups or entities, explicitly projecting a certain image of its addressee.

2.6.2 The projected addressee is characterized as having a certain moral or epistemic stance, or as standing in contrast to another group’s moral or epistemic stance: 3Bar addresses itself in the concluding sentence to "brothers": "And do you, brothers, who have been granted such a revelation, ascribe glory to God yourselves, so that he too may glorify you now and always, even to all eternity. Amen." The "brothers" are implicitly contrasted to Baruch, and to others who are not brothers. But is this said in Baruch's voice, and the brothers are his, or in the anonymous framer's voice, and they are his? The latter, from the reader's perspective, seems more satisfactory, but from the text's perspective the distinction may have little meaning.

2.6.3 The governing voice uses verbs of epistemic or moral exhortation or employs a “focus marker": The text exhorts the reader to "give glory to God" in a prominent frame-position. See 2.6.2. Focus-markers are also common, addressed by the angel to Baruch: e.g. "Listen, Baruch ..." (7:2; 9:6; 10:5).

2.7 The epistemic stance, knowledge horizon, moral stance and identity of the governing voice, and of the projected addressee, do not become thematic in the text: But note that the text, by explicitly claiming that Baruch's knowledge came from revelation, and included information not otherwise attainable ("mysteries"; see 2.1.5), it implicitly excludes other potential sources of knowledge, such as inference or deduction.

4.1 The text narrates events which are strongly emplotted, making reference to interlocking happenings, characters, motivations, causes, times or locations: Though there is no stress in 3Bar on emplotment in the sense of characterization, motivation, crisis and resolution, several sub-points here are found.

4.1.2 All subordinate events are presented as preparing one crisis and its solution, or as addressing one unified timespan/location, or as telling the fate of one character or a group of characters: 3Bar is the story of a journey through the heavens, told sequentially, starting with the first heaven and proceeding up to the fifth. There is unity of time (a single journey) and of location (the five heavens). The scene for the celestial journey is clearly set (1:1-8), there are numerous narrative elements (e.g. dialogue), and the story ends with the return of the hero, Baruch, to earth to tell what he has seen (17:1-4).

4.1.2.2 The action pivots around one character or a small set of inter-connected characters: The hero of 3Bar is Baruch, who tells the story in the first person. The figures with whom he interacts are angels, particularly the angel Phanuel.

4.1.3 The narrative provides a clear closure, or dwells on the closure: 3Bar 17:1-4 provides a strong close, marked by the following elements: (a) the door of the fifth heaven closing; (b) the statement "we [i.e. Baruch and Phanuel] withdrew", and the angel returning Baruch to where he was "at the beginning"; (c) reference to a doxology; (d) exhortation to the reader, addressed as "brothers", to glorify God when he reads "these revelations"; (e) Amen!. It is unclear whether Baruch or the framing-voice say (d) and (e). (e) may even be simply a copyist's addition, but it nevertheless conventionally marks closure. Slav also marks closure strongly, though in somewhat different words. See 1.4.1 and 1.7 above.

4.1.4 The narrative foregrounds apparently exact information on the absolute and relative timing of events: The framing voice in the Prologue of 3Bar times the events to the period when Abimelech was at Agrippa's estate/farm (Prol. 1:2). Baruch himself times it more vaguely after Nebuchadnezzar's sack of Jerusalem (1:1). See further 1.1.4, 2.1, 2.1.9, and 7.1.2.3 for 3Bar as a niche narrative.

4.2 The event sequence is projected as related to the sequence of text parts as follows:

4.2.1 The report sequence mirrors the projected chronological sequence of events mostly or wholly, not precluding 4.2.2–5: The event senquence in 3Bar follows strictly the progression from earth up through the five heavens and back to earth again. There is no analepsis or prolepsis, though there is reference in reported speech to earlier events in history, for example the building of the Tower of Babel (chap.3).

4.8 The text provides scene-setting information, other than the introduction of an I-narration.

4.8.1 There is an explicit introduction of the chronological and/or spatial setting of the action: The Prologue to 3Bar provides a fairly detailed setting as to time and place of events that follow. See 1.1.4 above.

4.9 There is prominent or sustained characterization of key figures in the narrative.

4.9.2 All characterization is achieved only through reporting the actions, speech or thoughts of the characters ("dramatic"): The dramatis personae of 3Bar are Baruch and various angels, but they are not formally characterized other than by their speeches and actions. Even then characterization is not strong. They are essentially ciphers used simply to convey information and project a point of view. See, however, 4.9.3.

4.9.3 A figure is characterized by her or his moral or religious traits: At 3Bar 11:7 Baruch is implicitly described as one of "those who pass through life rightly", i.e. as righteous, in implicit contrast to "those who pass through their lives badly", and who enter the belly of the dragon (= Hades) (4:5; 5:3). But there is also implicit moral criticism of Baruch at 1:6, where despite being addressed as, "O man greatly beloved" (sc. by God), whose prayer has been heard, he is told that God finds his constant bewailing of the fall of Jerusalem "irritating". The strongest characterization of Baruch occurs in this passage (see esp. 1:7).

4.9.3.2 Moral/religious traits are not manifestly linked to the ethnicity and/or gender of the figure: Though not strictly speaking explicit (4.9.3.1), the linking of moral traits to ethnicity may be implicit in 3Bar. Baruch implicitly identifies himself as a Jew, a member of the people whose city Jerusalem has been destroyed as a divine punishment by Nebuchadnezzar: note 1:2, "Why, Lord, did you not requite us with another punishment, but rather handed us over to such heathen, so that they reproach us saying, 'Where is their God?'".

4.10 A character’s relations to her/his community are foregrounded, including any two-fold social environment (e.g. a diaspora setting).

4.10.1 A main character is portrayed as being integrated in one societal environment but as in conflict with a second environment: Note at 3Bar 1:1-2 how the "us" (= Baruch + the people of ver.1) is set over against the "heathen" who include King Nebuchadnezzar, and who do not believe in the Jewish God. This is the only point where Baruch identifies himself as belonging to a community. "Brothers" in 17:4 is probably spoken by the framing voice. See 1.1.4 above.

4.11 Supernatural characters appear in the narrative, whether introduced casually, or accounted for elaborately: God, under a variety of titles (e.g. God [3:8], the Lord [3:6], the Lord God Almighty [1:3]), is referred to frequently, and occasionally plays a direct part in the action, but superhuman activity tends to be confined to angels, sometimes explicitly acting as God's agents in the world. Various angels play a major role in 3 Bar. Named angels: (1) Phamael (Gk) = Phanuel or Phanael (Slav) (2:5): the angel sent by God to be Baruch's angelus interpres. Features throughout the narrative. (2) Michael, "commander-in-chief" (11:4), "archangel" (12:4), "holder of the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (11:2), "glorious one" (13:4 Slav): features from chapter 11 onwards. Takes the prayers/virtues/good works of humanity to God, and brings back rewards and punishments. (3) Sarasael: conveys a message from God to Noah (4:15). (4) Samael: plants the vine through which Adam sinned (Gk has "Samuel" -- a manifest corruption!), and assumes the form of the serpent to bring about Adam's fall (9:7). Slav 4:7-8 has Satanael instead of Samael. (5) Slav 4:7-8, a passage not in the Gk, mentions Gabriel, Uriel, as well as Michael and Satanael as angels who planted trees in the Garden of Eden (variae lectiones: Raphael, Phanuel). A class of angels is mentioned at 12:2, viz., "angels over principalities". One might assume that these would be the angels severally in charge of the 70 nations, but they are clearly guardian angels, i.e. angels assigned by God to each individual human, whether they are good, bad, or intermediate (see 13:1 and 16:1). They bring the prayers/virtues/good works of their human assignees to Michael at the gate of the fifth heaven, and he takes them from there to God. They receive back from him at the same place the due rewards and punishments to distribute to their charges. Other supernatural beings: the sun and the Phoenix (6:1-8:7); the moon (9:1-8); and the dragon/serpent (4:3-7 + 5:1-2).

4.12 The narrative pace is slowed down or changed by the occasional or regular occurrence of extended descriptions.

4.12.1 There is extended description of one or more static objects.

4.12.1.1 There is extended description of a heavenly object, e.g. God’s throne, chariot, etc: The extended description of the sun and the Phoenix which takes up the bulk of chaps 6-8 is out of all proportion to the space allocated to other parts of the narrative. See 4.15 below. [NB strictly speaking these objects are not static, since they move through the heavens.]

4.13 The narrative pace is slowed down or changed by frequent or prominent quotation of speech, thought or text: Much of the content of 3Bar consists of Baruch reporting direct speech, uttered by Phanuel or other angels. The ratio of dialogue (question and answer, first-person explanation) to third-person description of objects or events is high.

4.13.2 Quoted speech/thought provides a comment on the events (4.13.1 does not apply): The standard narrative pattern in 3Bar consists of the angel showing Baruch something, which is briefly described, followed by a dialogue (question-and-answer) in which the nature/meaning of the object/event is explained. Large parts of the text have almost the literary character of a catechism: see e.g. chap. 10.

4.15 There are imbalances in the level of detail provided between adjacent parts of a continuous narrative, in the absence of narrative developments or conventions that obviously account for them: The content of 3Bar is basically an account of what can be found in 5 heavens, but the amount of space allocated to each heaven differs enormously. The third (4:2-9:8) and fifth (11:1-16:8) heavens take up the lion's share of the text.

5.1 [The bulk of the text is constituted by thematic discourse/description, albeit presented as speech/wording quoted from a narrative setting: Although 3Bar presents itself fundamentally as a narrative, and so is profiled in detail under Inventory 4 above, the rather simple, linear narrative functions only to provide a means of structuring and organizing a thematic discourse on the contents of the heavens. Looked at as a thematic discourse, 3Bar will tick quite a few points under Inventory 5.]

5.1.1 [The discursive or descriptive treatment of themes is presented as one character’s continuous speech or wording in a unique narrative situation.]

5.1.1.1 [The quotation forms a substantial continuous part of the overall text, but not its bulk, as there is also extended narration concerning its setting.]

5.1.2 [The discursive or descriptive treatment of themes is presented as constituted by speeches uttered on separate but mutually emplotted occasions (one or more speakers): Baruch in his first person narration/discourse regularly quotes other speakers.]

5.5 [The text’s sequence of sub-topics (discursive or narrative) mirrors a temporal or spatial order, but without narrative emplotment between the sub-topics. Or it mirrors the sequence of units of meaning in another text (from single words to whole books), while not reproducing the relationships between those parts, not using quotations from it as lemmatic progression (i.e., no 6.1), and not creating narrative emplotment: 3Bar does narratively emplot the relationship between the sequence of its sub-topics, but the emplotment is so minimal that it can be read as simply a way of determining the order of the sub-topics.]

5.5.1 [This order includes all parts of the text (excepting any frames), as follows:]

5.5.1.2 [A temporal order provides the sequence for non-normative (and non-narrative) information: The progress of Baruch through the five heavens determines the order of the topics. See 5.5.1.3]

5.5.1.3 [A spatial or geographical order provides the sequence for the text’s themes (including any normative themes): The objective contents of the five heavens determines the order of topics in 3Bar, provided they are accessed through a single, linear journey. See 5.5.1.2]

5.5.2 [This order defines only a continuous substantial part of the text, as follows:]

5.5.2.2 [A temporal order provides the sequence for continuous non-normative (and non-narrative) information in part of the text: In 3Bar it constitutes most, but not all, of the text. See 5.5.1.3]

5.5.2.3 [A spatial or geographical order provides the sequence for the text’s themes (including any normative themes) in a continuous part of the text: In 3Bar it constitutes most, but not all, of the text. See 5.5.1.3]

5.9.1 [Being taken for granted or being self-evident: Both the framing voice and Baruch claim that its statements are based on revelation, and so by definition true.]

5.10 [The governing voice ascribes statements about the text’s thematic substance pervasively or prominently to speaker characters as utterances: This is true in 3Bar in the sense that Baruch puts many of his statements in the mouth of the angel Phanuel, and other angels, and simply reports what they say. He makes no claims in his own voice, other than by reporting what was told/shown him by angelic mediation in heaven.]

5.10.3 [The governing voice quotes a character with a direct speech of such length that it constitutes a significant proportion of the text overall: The framing voice attributes the vast bulk of 3Bar to Baruch. See 2.1 above.]

5.10.5 [The reported wording is projected as a text, with the quoted character identified as its “author”: This is implicit in 3Bar. "Narration and Apocalypse" in 3Bar Prologue 1-2 are probably intended to identify Baruch's address as a textual entity.]

7.1 Narrative or thematic correspondences, or overlap of specific wording, occur between a non-biblical text and one or more biblical texts in a manner that is prominent or pervasive: Apart from the short scene-setting narrative at 3Bar Prol. 2 and 1:1, there is obvious overlap of wording and ideas between 3Bar 2:7-3:8 and the story of the Tower of Babel in Gen 11:1-9, and between 3Bar 4:8-17 and the story of the expulsion of Adam from the Garden of Eden in Gen 2-3, and the story of the Flood in Gen. 6-9. The two latter stories are intertwined in 3Bar through the motif of the vine as the tree which Adam was forbidden to touch, and the tree which Noah planted after the Flood, resulting in the disgraceful episode of his drunkeness. There are also isolated allusions to other passages in Scripture. E.g. 3Bar 3:5's treatment of the brickmaking in Gen 11:3 has been influenced by the biblical account of the brickmaking in Exod 5:7. However, much of the narrative of 3Bar does not have an obvious biblical background, and in no case where it does is the biblical wording highlighted as quotation. NB: since 3Bar was composed originally in Greek, the Bible for the author(s) will have been some form of the Greek Bible.

7.1.1 Characters correspond between the non-biblical narrative and the narrative of a biblical text or texts: The obvious overlap here is the figure of Baruch himself, the hero of 3Bar. But note also Adam, Noah, Nebuchadnezzar, and the archangel Michael. See 2.4.1 above.

7.1.1.2 The text’s main character is a minor character in Scripture: This is a moot point. Baruch is mentioned in the Bible in Jer 36, 45, 32:12-16, 43:3-6, but he very much plays "second fiddle" to Jeremiah, who is nowhere mentioned in 3Bar, and he is designated a "scribe", in contrast to Jeremiah the prophet (see Jer 36:26). In 3Bar, however, he acts as a prophet in his own right and receives revelation - a role he takes on in postbiblical literature: see 7.2.1.1 below.

7.1.1.2.1 That character is also the first-person narrator of the text: Baruch narrates the bulk of 3Bar.

7.1.2 Chronology, physical setting or emplotment correspond between the non-biblical narrative and the narrative of a biblical text or texts: This is true not only of the setting of 3Bar (a record of certain things that happened to Baruch after the destruction of Jerusalem), but also to two sub-narratives within that narrative -- the story of the building of the Tower of Babel, and the story of the Vine. See 7.1.4.2.1.

7.1.2.3 The narrative is located at a particular point (“niche”) in a chronological-spatial framework also known from a biblical text, but there is no overlap in the narrative substance: The events of 3Bar are located at a well-known point in biblical history, viz., the capture and destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, events which are described at length in 2 Kings 24:8-25:30 and 2 Chronicles 36:5-21, and which form the background to the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations. But the verbal overlaps with the biblical accounts are minimal: 3Bar is slotted into a niche in the biblical history, and contains narrative expansions with no parallel there.

7.1.4.2 The text contains prominently, but not necessarily frequently, the wording of specific biblical passages such as whole sentences or unique biblical phrases, used in a tacit manner. See also 8.1.4.1.

7.1.4.2.1 The tacit overlap of specific wording extends regularly to whole sentences or to extensive sentence groupings, found alongside sentences or sentence parts not found in that biblical partner text: (a) In the story of the making of the "tower of war" in 3Bar 2:7-3:8 the motifs of the tower that was intended to reach up to heaven, the making of the bricks with which to build it, and the divine punishment of confusion of tongues are all present in Gen 11:1-9, but in 3Bar they are interspersed with other motifs (the woman giving birth while making bricks; the attempt to pierce the first heaven with an auger; the punishment of the builders with blindness, and their post-mortem transformation into monstrous animal forms) which are not. (b) In the story of the vine in 3Bar 4:8-17 the motifs of the tree in Paradise which Adam was forbidden to touch, the temptation by the serpent, Adam's sin, the Flood, Noah's planting of the vine and his drunkeness are all found in the Bible (Gen 3:1-7; 6-8; 9:20-28), but they are interspersed in 3Bar with motifs (the tree in the Garden of Eden was a vine; the flood-waters washed a sprig of the vine out of Paradise, and Noah found it; Noah's prayer to God for guidance as to whether or not to plant the sprig) which are not. A number of these additions can be understood as attempts to clarify and interpret the biblical narrative in the manner of Rewritten Bible. Though the corresponding biblical stories are instantly recognizable, the lack of extensive and exact verbal overlaps between them and the 3Bar versions is striking.

7.1.4.3 [The tacit overlap of wording takes place across language boundaries, with respect to the current language of the text (this point does not apply to 6.13 cases): This does not apply, if one assumes 3Bar was written in Greek, and its author used the Greek Bible. See 7.1 above.]

7.1.5 The projected persona of the governing voice of the text, whether a narrative or not, is also known from a biblical text, or the governing voice assumes an epistemic stance similar to that of a biblical text.

7.1.5.1 The projected first-person persona of the governing voice is also a character in a biblical text: Baruch is a character in the biblical book of Jeremiah, but the Baruch of 3Bar is a prophet rather than just a scribe, his role in Jeremiah, hence it is doubtful if 7.1.5.1.1 applies. See 7.1.2.1 above.

7.1.5.3 The epistemic stance of the governing voice (narrative or not, first person or not) can be interpreted as falling into the same generic category as one of the following stances also adopted in biblical texts:

7.1.5.3.1 The conveyance of personally received verbal or visual revelation: prophecy model: Baruch's discourse is an account of a vision he had (note how 3Bar 17:3 implies, belatedly, that the ascent to heaven was a soul-excursion, in a dream or trance), and of the revelations he received during that vision, which is a prominent form of biblical prophecy (e.g. Ezekiel, Daniel). See 7.1.2.1 above.

7.1.9 While sharing the basic narrative-chronological framework of biblical texts, the narrative also mentions characters or events which presuppose a potentially quite different framework: 3Bar locates its story in biblical history just after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, but within its narrative speakers (mainly the angel Phanuel) refer to earlier events in biblical history - the Fall of Adam, the Flood, Noah's drunkenness, the building of the Tower of Babel. 3Bar, therefore, implicitly presupposes knowledge of biblical history from the Creation to the Babylonian exile. But it also contains narratives, motifs and characters not mentioned in the Bible. Some of these are known from non-biblical texts. See 7.2 below.

7.2 Narrative or thematic correspondences, or overlap of specific wording, occur between the non-biblical text under discussion and other non-biblical texts in a manner that is prominent or pervasive: Much of the non-biblical material in 3Bar can be paralleled in other early Jewish literature. E.g. there are significant accounts of the building of the Tower of Babel in Jubilees 10.18-26, Philo, De confusione linguarum, Josephus, Antiquities 1.100-118, Pseudo-Philo, LAB 6-7, Sibylline Oracles 3.97-109, bSanh. 109a, and the Targums (Onq, Neof 1, and especially Ps-J to Gen 11:1-9). Sometimes a non-biblical motif in 3Bar's account of the same episode (3Bar 2:7-3:8) can be paralleled in one of these, at others the partner text may be implicitly rejecting the view put forward in 3Bar (see detailed discussions in the literature quoted in the bibliography above, especially Kulik, 3 Baruch), but in no case is a non-biblical partner text explicitly identified in 3Bar by a quotation formula, nor is the wording overlap so striking or precise as to raise the possibility of an implicit quotation. What 3Bar seems to know is a series of non-biblical traditions, probably orally transmitted, which are also partially reflected in the texts named above (though see 7.2.5 below). This parabiblical literature in general shows that 3Bar has potentially to be defined not only in terms of its intertextuality to the Bible, but to non-biblical texts as well. [NB the profile ignores overlaps with Christian texts, such as the clear allusion to Matt 25:23 at 3Bar 15:4.]

7.2.1 There is a correspondence of characters (which may include the persona projected as the governing voice of the current text): Baruch plays a significant role in parabiblical Jewish literature (e.g. 1Bar, 2Bar and 4Bar), as does the archangel Michael [EXAMPLE].

7.2.1.1 This also constitutes a correspondence with a biblical text (7.1.1): Baruch and Michael also feature in the Bible (Jeremiah and Daniel).

7.2.2 The overall chronological and spatial framework of the narrative, as well as certain events, are substantially or prominently co-extensive with that of a non-biblical narrative or with some extended part of it: The narrative setting of 3Bar is broadly similar to that of 1Bar, 2Bar, and 4Bar [CHECK].

7.2.2.1 [The narrative is located at a particular point (“niche”) in a chronological-spatial framework also known from another non-biblical text, but there is no overlap in the narrative substance: It has been suggested that 3Bar locates itself in a niche in the narrative of 2Bar, where at 76:3 Baruch is promised cosmographical revelations which are not recorded elsewhere in that book, but this is unlikely because the content of the promised revelation has to do with terrestrial rather than celestial geography, as in 3Bar, and there are no specific enough verbal echoes of 2Bar in 3Bar to suggest that the author of the latter knew or expected his readers to know the former. A more convincing niche for 3Bar in a non-biblical narrative occurs in 4Bar 3-4, a text probably well known to the framing voice of 3Bar (see 7.2.5). There Jeremiah is instructed by God to go to Babylon and leave Baruch behind, "until I speak to him". This is apparently fulfilled when, after Jerusalem has been captured, and Jeremiah and the people carried off to Babylon, Baruch goes out from the city (4Bar 4:10) to lament its fall, but angels come and explain (ekdiegoumenon) everything to him (4Bar 4:11). Note how 3Bar 1:1-4 seems to echo not only motifs, but even wording in 4Bar 4:6-11: "And Baruch put dust on his head, sat down, and wailed this lament, saying: 'Why has Jerusalem been laid waste? Because of the sins of the beloved people it has been surrendered into the hands of the enemies, because of our sins and those of the people. But let not the lawless (people) boast and say, "We are strong (enough) to take the city of God by our power ..."' Having said this , he [Baruch] went out weeping and saying, '[Grieving] because of you, Jerusalem, I went out from you.' And he remained sitting in a tomb, while angels came and explained everything to him." 4Bar does not give the angels' 'explanation' (diegesis). 3Bar may implicitly present itself as filling that gap, though interestingly its theodicy is somewhat different from 4Bar's..

7.2.2.2 [This co-extension also constitutes a co-extension with a biblical text; or, this “niche” relationship also constitutes a “niche” relationship with a biblical text (7.1.2.1/7.1.2.3): If 7.2.2.1 applies then 3Bar's narrative would be a niche within a niche (2Bar), because 2Bar itself can be located at a niche within biblical history. But there is sufficient information in 3Bar on its own to locate it directly within biblical history, without resorting to 2Bar.]

7.2.5 There are prominent single allusions to specific wording found in a non-biblical partner text: The most striking possible cases of this in 3Bar are: (a) 3Bar Prol. 2, "Apocalypse of Baruch who was ... weeping over the captivity of Jerusalem while Abimelech was safeguarded on the estate of Aprippa by the hand of God". The allusion here is clarified by 4Bar 3:9-16, where Jeremiah asks God what he should do with Abimelech, the Ethiopian, who had rescued him from the pit. Because of Abimelech's kindnesses to him and the people, he does not want him to be distressed by seeing the destruction of Jerusalem. God instructs Jeremiah to send Abimelech to the vineyard of Agrippa (later referred to as Agrippa's farm/estate), and there he would shelter him until he brought back his people from Babylon. Jeremiah complies. Abimelech is a significant actor in 4Bar: see also 4Bar 5:1-6:8, where he is said to sleep through the exile. His name is a variant of Abdemelech, the name given to the Ethiopian who saved Jeremiah from the cistern in the LXX (Jer 45:7 = Ebed-melech in MT Jer 38:7). The fact that both texts share the same "corruption" of the name is striking. It should be noted that this reference to Abimelech in 3Bar occurs in frame position, in what may, diachronically speaking, be a later addition. (b) 3Bar 3:5, "Among them one woman was making bricks in the time of her delivery; and they did not permit her to be released, but while making bricks she gave birth. And she carried her child in her cloak and continued making bricks." Cf. Targum Ps-J Exod 24:10 (parallels: PRE 48; Sefer ha-Yashar, Noah; Midrash ha-Gadol 11:3): "... the likeness of a work of sapphire stone, recalling the slavery with which the Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with clay and bricks. As the women trod the clay with their husbands, there was a delicately reared maiden who was pregnant. She lost the foetus, and it was trodden into the clay. Gabriel came down and made a brick out of it, and bringing it up to the heavens on high, he placed it as a platform under the footstool of the Lord of the world." The core motif here (woman giving birth while treading clay for bricks) is sufficiently striking to suggest some sort of relationship between the two texts, but the settings of the story in each case are very different, and certain other features do not match.

7.2.7 The projected first-person persona of the governing voice of the text, whether narrative or not, is also known from another non-biblical text.

7.2.7.1 The projected first-person persona is identical with a character in another non-biblical text: Baruch plays a key role also in 1Bar, 2Bar, and 4Bar. In 2Bar he speaks the bulk of the text in the first person, as in 3Bar.

7.2.7.1.1 The persona appears to be linked to that character as it specifically appears in the other text, not merely as it might be known from diffuse cultural knowledge: Baruch's prophetic role in 3Bar is closer to his character in 2Bar and 4Bar than it is to his character in 1Bar or Jeremiah, but this on its own is hardly sufficient to link 3Bar directly to the other Baruch literature. It may have been accepted widely in postbiblical Judaism that Baruch was a prophet, even by people who did not know the Baruch literature.

7.2.7.3 The 7.2.7. overlap also constitutes an overlap with a biblical text: See 7.1.1.2 above.

8.1 Standard forms or contents formulated in set phrases, set sentence formats, or clauses in a standard syntactic connection.

8.1.6 Speech report: The bulk of 3Bar consists of short dialogues in question and answer form, reported as direct speech. See 8.2.3 below.

8.1.10 List sentence enumerating items by words or phrases: There are three prominent lists of vices at 3Bar 4:17, 8:5, and 13:4 (similar but not identical), and a short list of punishments at 16:3. A list of angels and trees at 4:7 (Slav); a list of rivers (4:5 Slav; Gk is shorter).

8.1.13 Declamatory sentence, confession, proclamation or affirmation: Not common but note 3Bar 1:1, "Woe ...", and 1:7, "As the Lord lives, if you disclose a word to me, and I hear it from you, I will speak no further. May God add to me punishment on the Day of Judgment if I speak in the future."

8.1.16 Descriptive sentence of a static (ocular) structure or "scientific" descriptive sentence: Common, e.g. the description of the Phoenix at 7:3-5, but these descriptions are short, and lead quickly to questions about the nature of the object so far described. See 8.2.3.

8.2 Non-narrative small literary forms that impose on their components a standard functional relationship to each other, while grammar and syntax may vary:

8.2.3 Self-contained question-answer unit in discourse concerning the meaning of an earlier word/words in the same text: Very common, and a major driver of the narrative: for example 3Bar 6:3-6, "And I said to the angel, 'What is this bird?' And he said to me: 'This is the guardian of the world.' And I said: 'Lord, how is it the guardian of the world? Teach me.' And the angel said to me: 'This bird accompanies the sun, and spreading its wings absorbs its fire-shaped rays.'" and so on.

8.3 Forms with internal emplotment relationships, or character-centred small literary forms or motifs:

8.3.6 The narrative motif of humanized animals or animals as agents: Humans are represented in zoomorphic shape, as hybrids (2:3; 3:3), or (the souls of the righteous) as cranes (10:3). However, the Phoenix, though a divine agent, is nothing more than an enormous bird (6:2-14).

8.3.7 The narrative motif of the fantastic, grotesque, or gross: Common in 3Bar, as in many other apocalypses. 2:3, men with faces of cattle, horns of deer, feet of goats, and loins of sheep; 3:3, men with faces of dogs and feet of deer. Note the description of the dragon at 4:5-6, and the Phoenix in 6:2-14. There are also elements of the fantastic in the description of the dimensions of the heavens (e.g. 2:3-4), the crane (10:3, as big as an ox), and the bowl which receives the offerings of humanity (11:8).

8.4 Small poetic form:

8.4.1 Occurrence of a song, poetic piece, rhythmic unit: It is possible, but not certain, that 4:15 (part of a Christian "interpolation"), "Its [the vine's] bitterness will be changed to sweetness,/ its curse will become a blessing,/ and its fruit will become the blood of God", is a three-stich poetic unit, maybe a fragment of a longer (Christian) hymn about the vine.

9.1 [An extended portion or substantial proportion of the thematic text (or thematic part of a non-thematic text) projects its selection and sequence of themes as mirroring an objective order in the projected world, by one of the following means: Strictly-speaking 3Bar is narratival rather than thematic, but see 5.1 above, which justifies ticking some Inventory points here.]

9.1.4 [By mirroring a temporal or spatial order: The content of 3Bar is fundamentally an account of the contents of the five heavens, and the order in which the topics are treated is that which results from recounting a journey through the heavens that goes sequentially from the lowest to the highest.]

9.6.3 [Use of explicit reference to the textual position or sequence of information, articulating the passage as having coordinated parts: Note the structuring function of phrases such as "Come and I will show you greater mysteries" (3Bar 2:6); "And I Baruch said, 'Behold, lord, you have shown me great and wondrous things. Now show me all, for the Lord's sake'" (3Bar 4:1); "Come, and I will show you works [Slav, mysteries] greater than these". Note also the summary at 3Bar 7:2, which helps readers locate themselves in the narrative: "And the angel said to me: 'Listen, Baruch, everything I have shown you is in the first and second heaven; and in the third heaven the suns passes through, and gives splendour to the world'."]

9.6.5 [Use of ordinal or cardinal numbers to designate themes in text sequence (e.g., “first generation”): The heavens are enumerated "first heaven" (2:1), "second heaven" (3:1); "fourth heaven" (10:1); "fifth heaven" (11:1). The "third heaven" is not named at 4:2, where it should be, and the "fourth heaven" at 10:1, is, probably as a result of the earlier omission, actually called the third in Gk, but these are mistakes which can easily be rectified.]

9.6.6 [Use of questions to articulate parts within a passage or functioning as headings: Development of a theme and transitions between themes are pervasively managed in 3Bar by questions posed by Baruch to the angel, and and the angel's replies. The text has almost the feeling of a catechism in some places.]

9.13 Physical evidence from antiquity potentially shows non-verbal signals indicating (an interpretation of) the text’s thematic division: Check the ms divisions into chapters and verses. The chapter divisions seem to agree between Gk and Slav, but not the verse divisions. The chapter divisions are not a particularly good indication of the real subdivisions of the text.

11.1 [The non-narrative text projects its thematic concern as being mainly one or more of the following: For justification of applying non-narrative points to 3Bar see 5.1 above.]

11.1.1 [Description of a reality, including a physical reality: See, for example, the descriptions of the sun and the moon in 3Bar 6-9.]

11.1.2 [Moral values or value judgments, including practical instructions on proper behaviour or self-preservation: This is only implicit in 3Bar, but nontheless prominent and central to its message. Note, for example, 4:17, which lists the vices that result from drunkenness; 8:9, which lists the sins committed by humankind on earth which defile the rays of the sun; 13:4, which lists the sins that mark the wicked. This last text is part of an extended passage (12-16) which implicitly divides humankind into three categories: the righteous, who do good, the intermediate, who do both good and bad, and the wicked who do only evil. The passage ends by assigning, in general terms, divine reward and punishment, as appropriate, to each group.]

11.1.3 [Law, commandments or norms of behaviour: Norms of behaviour are implicit in the lists of vices: see 11.1.2.]

11.1.6 [Reports of the speech of named characters: The bulk of the information contained in 3Bar is conveyed by the angel showing Baruch certain mysteries, and answering his questions about them. Much of the text is taken up with Baruch reporting in direct speech the words of the angel.]

11.1.7 [Future events or future reward and punishment: Reward and punishment is the main theme of 3Bar 15-16 (note esp. 16:4 Slav).]

11.2 The text is dominated by the reporting of emplotted events, whether or not in an overarching narrative format (4): See 4.1.2 above.

11.2.2 The reported events are not biblical, but are related to a biblical past/future: The bulk of the narrative in 3Bar is not paralleled in the Bible, but it is set in biblical time. See 7.1 above.

Editions: BL Ms Add. 10,073 (15th-16th cent.) was first edited by M.R. James, "The Apocalypse of Baruch", in: J.A. Robinson (ed.), Apocrypha Anecdota II (Texts and Studies 5; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1897), pp. 83-94. It was re-edited along with Ms 46 from the Monastery of the Hagia on Andros (early 15th cent.) by J.-C. Picard, Apocalypsis Baruchi Graece (PVTG 2; Leiden: Brill, 1967). This text is available electronically from the Online Critical Pseudepigrapha website, http://ocp.tyndale.ca/3-greek-apocalypse-of-baruch (accessed 24/04/2012). Twelve Slavonic mss have been edited by Harry E. Gaylord, The Slavonic Version of III Baruch (PhD dissertation, Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1983), using Ms Petersburg, RNB, Grec. 70 (13th cent.) as the base text. There is no doubt that the work was originally composed in Greek, but the Slavonic translation may, at certain points, reflect an older Greek recension than that contained in the two extant Greek mss (which are textually very close to each other). The profile is based on BL ms Add. 10,073 (= Gk), with occasional reference to the Slavonic (=Slav). It might have been different had it been based on the Petersburg Slavonic ms. E.g., the latter does not have the scene-setting Prologue (though it does contain, arguably, a sort of textual "ghost" of it), which would significantly affect the entry under 2.2.1. Christian "interpolations" in the Greek text are less in evidence in the Slavonic recension. See further 1.7 below. [NB clear Christian references are ignored in the Profile. 3Bar is profiled as a Jewish text, and hence Bible in the profile has been taken as Tanakh.]